Testimony

Global Aid Network (GAiN) drilled a water well in Segourou gah and the village life was transformed.

Toliko Sannon Tchabi Louis, the secretary for the borehole committee, said: “I thank God for the well He gave us through GAiN because it is doing a lot of good to the village. The water from the pump helps to fight against water-related diseases and illnesses that we used to suffer from – diarrhea, vomiting, and fever. We used to drink water from the stream that is 1.5 km from the village and our women wasted a lot of time fetching the water and then waiting for the dirt to settle. Unfortunately, we used to go to the same stream to fetch water for building and other uses. During wedding ceremonies or funerals, a lot of people would fall sick due to the quality of water we gave them. But, we suffer no more. We thank the Lord and thank GAiN.”

Shortly thereafter, the JESUS Film was shown and the village had an opportunity to hear about the Living Water. Fifty out of the 312 that attended decided to leave their worship of Voodoo and become followers of Jesus.
To help strengthen the existing believers as well as ensure growth and follow-up of the ones that made first-time commitments, an Assemblies of God church was planted in the village, allowing the Gospel to shine in the darkness of Voodoo.

Hygiene training

“It was exciting to see this reaction to Alfonses teaching happening and you could see in the faces of the villagers that they were fully engaged and learning”.

This was the enthusiastic report of a visiting colleague that attended a hygiene training in a rural village in Benin.

Alfonse had developed an approach that actively engaged the villagers in the learning process. The interaction between Alfonse and the villagers was really quite strikingly different from what previously happened in similar trainings. In those previous times the villagers politely listened to the lesson and rarely  responded. With Alfonse leading the training, the villagers spontaneously responded to his questions.

This hygiene training is a standard addition to the drilling of a well, together with a technical training for several members of the village that are assigned by the villagers to care for the well. To do so they gather a small contribution from those who use the well so that future repairs can be paid from that fund and the village is not dependant on GAiN any longer. Of course our teams do stay in touch with the villages for a long time and are always available to help in case the need is there for bigger operations.